Melted Snow
by MirrorDede
Summary: Post-Abyss Xerxes Break is like snow...a bit cold, but easily melted. For reasons of his own, Young Vincent Nightray is determined to try to make the man cry...


Kink meme request:

"Vincent does his best to make Break cry.

Feel free to get as kinky or dark or conversely, as gen as you like as long as it's not crack."

Summary: Post-Abyss Xerxes Break is like snow...a bit cold, but easily melted. For reasons of his own, Young Vincent Nightray is determined to try to make the man cry...  
Rating: PG  
Words: 952  
Writer's Note: De-anoning from kink meme for this. The request was "Vincent does his best to make Break cry." Hehe this is so right up my alley. I hope you don't mind that I used little Vincent instead of grown up Vincent. It seemed easier to make it somewhat realistic that way.

**Melted Snow**

It was unseasonably warm for an early spring day, and the man called Xerxes Break was sleeping under the shade of an oak tree. His dreams were as usual; a desolate blend of cold, pain and guilt, and as often happened in his dreams, he woke to the hallucinatory sensation of melted snow on his face. Usually the 'snow' was either blood seeping from his bandaged eye socket, or tears, which sometimes leaked against his will from the damaged tear ducts in his missing left eye.

But on this day when he awoke, the sensation of snow on his face came from a different thing; a little blond haired boy was poking his cheeks with the cold, blunt end of some sewing scissors. Xerxes gasped and sat up, pushing the boy away.

"You!" he said rudely to the boy. _That Vincent Nightray_.

Vincent giggled.

"Hey, Mister, isn't it time you took off those bandages from your head? Surely your eye is healed by now?"

"It's none of your business," Xerxes grumbled, trying to adjust and retie the bandage that had come loose during his sleep_. It's taking so long to heal because my tears keep coming and aggravating the wound, soaking the bandages, so irritating... _he thought.

Vincent grabbed one end of the bandage and started to pull on it, then ran circles around Xerxes trying to unwind it. Angrily, Xerxes grabbed the kid's leg and the boy fell clumsily to his knees. Undaunted, Vincent giggled and snipped away at the end of the bandage, his scissors squeaking like a little mouse. Xerxes grabbed Vincent's small hand and squeezed it hard so he couldn't snip.

"Ow!" Vincent whined.

"I don't want to have to hurt you," Xerxes said, between gritted teeth, "But if you don't leave me alone, I'm going to make sure your father finds out the way you've callously disregarded the health and safety of an invalid."

"He won't care!" Vincent said, squirming away. "No one cares what I do. They just think I'm a weirdo over at the Nightray house." Vincent suddenly smiled sweetly, and Xerxes felt an involuntary chill creep up his spine. "You're a weirdo, too, huh?" Vincent said. "Everyone's weird, right? That makes me normal!"

Xerxes remembered the last time and place he had heard similar words, and felt sick to his stomach_. I need to change the subject…now_. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wrapped candy.

"Care for a piece of candy…Vincent-sama?" Xerxes said, trying to force a smile.

Vincent laughed maniacally and fell to the ground, rolling around.

"You _are_ a weirdo! Haha!"

Xerxes felt his face flush pink.

"Shut up! Why are you bothering me, brat?"

"Oh, Mister," Vincent said, trying to recover from laughing so hard, "I like you the best. You remind me of my dear brother Gilbert. When I first met you, you were crying. And your crying voice reminded me so much of Gilbert. I want to see Gilbert again…_and I want to hear you cry again_!" He looked at Xerxes with crazy eyes and crept closer, pointing his scissors at the man's chest.

Xerxes smacked the scissors out of Vincent's hand and they went flying through the air, hitting little Sharon on the arm.

"Ow!" cried Sharon, who had just appeared.

"Ojou-sama!" gasped Xerxes, running to her. "Are you alright? I didn't realize you'd come out here."

"Yes, I was looking for you," she said, looking at the small puncture wound in her arm that was just beginning to bleed.

Xerxes grasped her arm and looked at it, his eyes full of concern.

"I'll be alright, Xerx-nii, I'll just run to the washroom and clean it up." She looked up at him sweetly. "But your bandage has come all undone! I'll be back soon to help you with it, once I stop this bleeding!" She turned and rushed back toward the manor house. Xerxes tried to follow, but found that his head bandage was unraveled down to the ground and standing on the other end of it - preventing him from going forward - was little Vincent.

Vincent stood triumphantly on the end of the bandage with an evil grin. He'd picked up his scissors and was snipping them menacingly in the air.

"So _that's_ the sort of thing that really bothers you, Mister. You get upset when you can't protect the people you care about."

Furious, Xerxes kicked Vincent in the chest and sent him flying a few feet back, then snatched up his bandage and ran as fast as he could toward the house. _I need to get away from that boy before I kill him_, he thought. _Why does he have to torment me. Haven't I suffered enough? And he even hurt little Sharon…but it was my fault for being angry and knocking the scissors out of his hand…_

He began to weep tears of frustration and regret. No longer able to see clearly enough to continue running, he ducked behind a bush, and collapsed to the ground, his chest heaving. He tried to be as silent as possible, in case Vincent was nearby, but he was so breathless from running that the breath came out in uncontrollable gasping sobs. He put his face in his hands and looked down toward the ground, so that the tears would spill out and not leak back into his empty eye socket, further irritating it.

After a moment, he'd pulled himself together enough to look up, and standing right in front of him…was Vincent Nightray, grinning widely.

"Good show, Mister! I will love to make you cry any chance I get…"

Then the little boy ran away, laughing and snapping his scissors in the air.


End file.
